His or Her Worship is an honorific prefix for mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

s, Justices of the Peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 and magistrate

Magistrate

A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

s in Commonwealth Realms. In spoken address, these officials are addressed as Your Worship or referred to as His or Her Worship; South Africa is an exception, as the term is still used to address judges in court. In Australia all States now use Your Honour

His Honour

His Honour or Her Honour is an honorific prefix which is traditionally applied to certain classes of people, in particular justices and judges and mayors...

 as the form of address for magistrates (the same as has always been used for judges in higher courts).

Origin of the term

The term worship

Worship

Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...

implies that citizens give or attribute special worth or esteem (worthship) to their first-citizen or mayor. According to Chaucer, the term means to respect; to honour; or to treat with civil reverence.

The Right Worshipful

Mayors of cities

City status in the United Kingdom

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...

 and the original Cinque Ports

Cinque Ports

The Confederation of Cinque Ports is a historic series of coastal towns in Kent and Sussex. It was originally formed for military and trade purposes, but is now entirely ceremonial. It lies at the eastern end of the English Channel, where the crossing to the continent is narrowest...

 (Sandwich

Sandwich, Kent

Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....

, Hythe

Hythe, Kent

Hythe , is a small coastal market town on the edge of Romney Marsh, in the District of Shepway on the south coast of Kent. The word Hythe or Hithe is an Old English word meaning Haven or Landing Place....

, Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

, Romney

New Romney

New Romney is a small town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to be silted up. New Romney was once a sea port, with the harbour adjacent to the church, but is now more than a mile from the sea...

 and Hastings

Hastings

Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....

), are styled The Right Worshipful. Also some historic boroughs, such as Shrewsbury and Atcham

Shrewsbury and Atcham

Shrewsbury and Atcham was, between 1974 and 2009, a local government district with borough status in Shropshire, England.Shrewsbury was the only town in the borough; Atcham, although itself only a village, was included in the name as a reflection of the incorporation into the borough of the former...

 in Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, address their mayors by this prefix. In India especially in Tamil Nadu the Mayor of Chennai is addressed as Worshipful Mayor with robes and attire as per the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

See also

• Style (manner of address)
  Style (manner of address)
  A style of office, or honorific, is a legal, official, or recognized title. A style, by tradition or law, precedes a reference to a person who holds a post or political office, and is sometimes used to refer to the office itself. An honorific can also be awarded to an individual in a personal...
  
  
• Excellency
  Excellency
  Excellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
  
  
• The Honourable
  The Honourable
  The prefix The Honourable or The Honorable is a style used before the names of certain classes of persons. It is considered an honorific styling.-International diplomacy:...
  
  
• The Right Honourable
  The Right Honourable
  The Right Honourable is an honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain people in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Anglophone Caribbean and other Commonwealth Realms, and occasionally elsewhere...
  
  
• Use of courtesy titles and honorifics in professional writing
  Use of courtesy titles and honorifics in professional writing
  The use of honorifics and styles differs greatly among publications in both journalism and academia. The differences are based on tradition, practical concerns , and cultural norms...
  
  
• Forms of address in the United Kingdom
  Forms of Address in the United Kingdom
  Forms of address used in the United Kingdom are given below.Several terms have been abbreviated in the table below. The forms used in the table are given first, followed by alternative acceptable abbreviations in parentheses.-Abbreviations:*His/Her Majesty: HM...